Strictly speaking, this photograph shouldn’t be included in my Cop26 Glasgow series because it’s a shot of a sign in Edinburgh with St. Mary’s Cathedral in the background. However, I think the sign’s message is fitting to the occasion.
As a Canuck, I had never seen such a sign before. Fortunately, Transport Scotland, in cooperation with the UK’s three other regional governments, has kindly posted its Traffic Signs Manual on Scribd. We find an explanation in Chapter 8 – Traffic Safety Measures and Signs for Road Works and Temporary Situations. Although Chapter 8 runs to 229 pages, if we dig into the document, we find an explanation on page 43. Basically, in the case of a street that can accommodate only one lane of traffic, traffic from one direction gets priority and traffic from the other direction has to yield. Unless, of course, a temporary sign advises that the priorities have been changed.
When I first made this shot, I thought maybe I could use it as a commentary on the way the spiritual life forces us to change our priorities. But now, as we come to recognize that certain of our habits have brought not just us, but all life, to the brink of an existential cliff, the image suggests to me that we need to rethink those habits. Now, this image speaks to me less of the spiritual life than of the practical matter of sustaining biological life. To the extent it invokes the spiritual life, it does so by calling on religious institutions to support us in our efforts to rework how we live in relation to one another, to all living creatures, and to the planet at large. This is a matter of justice and, as I view it, religion that doesn’t serve the ends of justice has no place in our future.
